. >> we were expecting a good run, we exceeded the daily max mum. it was mayhem, really, it was mayhem. >> salmon populations have struggled since the river and its tributearies were harnessed for power. hundreds of river miles away, then the snake, then the clearwater, these fall chinook reach the end of their line. fish returning to this stretch of river numbered in the hundreds in the 1990s. this is a different year. >> it's fun, pretty magnificent. >> it means something -- that we're doing something as a people, doing something that's right. >> at this tribal hatchery funded by court order by the federal bonneville power administration, workers scan fish for implanted computer chips, test for disease and strip chinook of their eggs and sperm. fortyizeation in hatcheries completes the cycle. all of this is one example of the human help the fish get from state and federal sources, conservation groups and tribes. hydroelectric turbines have been improved, killing fewer young fish and dam managers have tweaked operations to increase the survival rat